Piers Akerman: We must free the Arab people from Hamas – or stop pretending we stand for freedom

If Aussies care about the Arabs in Gaza, we must help them escape their cage by dismantling Hamas, writes Piers Akerman.

In Easter and Passover rituals, millions globally celebrate and rejoice in freedom.

The Resurrection symbolised freedom through Christ, and Passover, commemorating the Exodus, the great flight from slavery to freedom. Both represent the triumph of faith over fear.

These are timeless lessons, not only for Christians and Jews but for all seeking liberation from tyranny.

Yet today, across the sands of history but in the same arid region, we find another people in bondage – not under Israel or the West’s control, but shackled by the iron grip of Hamas.

To be clear: Gaza is not “occupied” by Israel. It’s occupied by Hamas – a jihadist death cult. Those masked murderers are not freedom fighters; they are enforcers of a violent theocracy whose cruelty knows no limits and, as always, their first victims are their own people.

Palestinians chant slogans during an anti-war protest and against Hamas in a rare show of public anger against the militant group that rules the territory. Picture: AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi

Only recently, two brave young Gazan men dared to speak out against Hamas’s reign of terror. Their fate? Torture and death. One body was dumped like garbage outside his family home, a grotesque warning to others. This isn’t governance, it’s rule by fear, suppression, and savagery.

Hamas’s rise to power in Gaza mirrors the grotesque trajectory of another murderous ideology: the Nazis. Hitler, too, was elected – then used terror to consolidate power, silence dissent, and manipulate the masses. Tell that to the slack-jawed university students chanting Free Palestine as they wave Hamas colours in our streets, oblivious to the truth of the regime they’re glorifying.

Palestinian militant group Hamas fighters. They are child murderers, rapists and cowards who hide behind civilians and hospitals. Picture: Eyad Baba/AFP

Free Palestine? Yes – free it from Hamas. Since Hamas unleashed its barbaric October 7 attack on Israeli civilians, thousands of Palestinians have fled Gaza.

Australia granted 3000 tourist visas after negligible security checks but 7100 applications were rejected, because mixed in with the desperate are dangerous radicals who don’t seek refuge but recruitment.

Case in point: a 16-year-old in Perth, allegedly radicalised, stabbed a stranger outside a Bunnings. Another “lone wolf”? No – the wolf is real, and it’s raised in a pack. Like Usman Khan, who was given a second chance at life through a prison reform program in the UK and repaid that kindness by murdering in cold blood. Or Sudesh Amman, who barely waited days after release before stabbing two innocents.

How do you deradicalise someone taught from childhood that martyrdom is holy, that Jews are subhuman, and the West is evil? This isn’t criminality. It’s ideology.

NSW Premier Chris Minns might be a decent man, but he’s delusional if he thinks this problem can be solved with community liaisons and vague platitudes. He inherited a Labor Party terrified of offending its Muslim voter base, especially in Western Sydney where anti-Israel sentiment runs deep and the headscarves outnumber hardhats at anti-Semitic rallies.

I’ve seen this personally. Years ago, a complaint was lodged against me by Keysar Trad, right-hand man to the infamous Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly – a man who compared scantily clad women to “cat’s meat”. His lawyer, Adam Houda, greeted me with “Are you a Jew?” – a phrase that would have caused a national outcry had it come from anyone else.

Sheik Taj el-Din al Hilaly. Picture: Ian Waldie/Getty Images

Adam Houda.

And what happened to Hilaly? Initially denied permanent residence on national security grounds, he was given a visa by Paul Keating’s Labor government, in a shameful act of political cowardice.

This sickness has spread. The ABC is caught up in the activist fantasy, they’ve peddled Hamas’s propaganda under the guise of “reporting”. Both the ABC and SBS refuse to call the terrorists what they are: child murderers, rapists, cowards who hide behind civilians and hospitals.

If we care about the Arabs in Gaza, we must help them escape their cage by dismantling Hamas. Free Gaza from Hamas – or stop pretending you stand for freedom at all.

Originally published as Piers Akerman: We must free the Arab people from Hamas – or stop pretending we stand for freedom